Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) on Sunday said he doesn’t think Americans “care who does the background checks” on Donald Trump’s cabinet picks — a standard practice for nominees to undergo before Senate confirmation hearings.
“What the American public cares about is to see the mandate that they voted in delivered upon,” said Hagerty in an interview with Jonathan Karl, host of ABC News’ “This Week.”
Trump’s transition team has so far broken from the typical procedure for cabinet picks and hasn’t agreed to necessary documents that would pave the way for FBI background checks, ABC News reported Sunday.
The news comes as several of Trump’s controversial cabinet picks have either facedquestionsovertheir backgrounds or been accused of sexual misconduct including former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who asked for his name to be withdrawn from consideration to be the president-elect’s attorney general on Thursday.
Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to be defense secretary, has also faced allegations of sexual assault dating back to 2017.
A number of Hagerty’s Republican colleagues have pointed to FBI background checks when asked about the allegations against Hegseth including Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who said such a procedure would be “helpful” in the former TV host’s case.
Karl, later in his interview with Hagerty, asked the senator if he doesn’t care about FBI background checks.
“Should we just do away with them, that you can go ahead and not do this?” said Karl of a “standard practice” that has been around for decades.
Hagerty noted that he’s been through the Senate confirmation process himself and the FBI needs to do the checks “expeditiously” before claiming that Americans have “great concerns about how weaponized” the agency has become.
Democracy In The Balance
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“They need to get on with this. We’ll get this done,” he said.
Trump advisers reportedly proposed bypassing the vetting process — which the president-elect’s son-in-law Jared Kushner once hit a snag with — prior to the election.
Democrats have since introduced a bill that would “codify the FBI’s role in conducting background check investigations” for cabinet officials and require Congress be notified should the president overrule the FBI in giving “such employees access to classified information,” according to a press release.